Democrat Tom Barrett has decided to enter the upcoming Wisconsin primary. Barrett ran against Governor Scott Walker in the 2010 race. He is competing with other Democrats: Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette, state Senator Kathleen Vinehout, and former executive of Dane County Kathleen Falk.

Barrett is the current mayor of Milwaukee. He kicked off his campaign with a stop in Wausau yesterday. He reminded supporters that they have another option besides the “my way or the highway” type of governing by Walker. He also wrote in an email to supporters that he would “fight to restore collective bargaining rights, because it’s the right thing to do, and it’s necessary to heal Wisconsin”.

A Wisconsin federal district court judge already stuck down part of Walker’s anti-collective bargaining legislation stating that it “violates the equal protection rights of affected state employee unions”. The problem is that Walker gave special consideration to police and firefighters, allowing them to continue collecting union membership dues. The court’s ruling found that all unions that supported Walker were categorized under this “exempt” heading while unions that did not support him were subject to the new law requiring them to re-certify every year and prohibiting them from collecting dues.

Citizens in Wisconsin are sending a message with this historic recall. The message that they are fed up with Republican games in their state.

Scott Walker won in 2010 with 52 percent of the vote. After receiving 900,939 valid signatures, a recall was issued by the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board on Friday. The recall election will be held June 5, 2012.